Assange charged
WikiLeaks founder accused in hacking that led to release of secret documents in 2010
WASHINGTON — The U.S. has charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with conspiring to hack a computer as part of the 2010 release of reams of secret American documents, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday, putting him just one flight away from being in U.S. custody after years of seclusion in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
The charge, conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, was filed in March 2018 and stems from what prosecutors said was his agreement to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer. It carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and is significant in that it is not an espionage charge, a detail that will come as a relief to advocates of press freedom. Until at least last year, the U.S. government had considered charging him with an espionage-related offense.
Assange, 47, has been living at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012. British authorities arrested him Thursday, and he had a heavy beard and appeared disheveled. A video showed him shackled and being carried out of the embassy and forced into a police van. He was detained partly in connection with a U.S. extradition warrant after he was evicted by the Ecuadorians.
Assange has been in the sights of the U.S. government since 2010 disclosures by his organization. Most recently, Assange has been under attack for his organization’s release during the 2016 presidential campaign of thousands of emails stolen from the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee, leading to a series of revelations that embarrassed the party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. U.S. investigators have said the systems were hacked by Russian agents; the conspiracy charge against Assange unsealed Thursday is not related to the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s election influence.
In 2010, WikiLeaks released U.S. files that documented the killing of civilians and journalists and the abuse of detainees by forces of the U.S. and other countries, airing officials’ unvarnished, often unflattering views of allies and of American actions.
Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst then known as Bradley Manning, was convicted of leaking that collection of files and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama commuted the sentence after Manning had served almost seven years.
U.S. prosecutors said that in March 2010, Assange agreed to help Manning crack a password on a Defense Department computer to reach restricted classified government documents and communications.
Prosecutors said there were communications that showed that Assange encouraged Manning to get more information.
“After this upload, that’s all I really have got left,” Manning said to Assange on March 7, 2010, according to the indictment. Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience.”
Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Assange, accused America of conducting what he said was “an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information.”